The real Glaswegian working class voice in the independence debate read by thousands, the BBC and other related media, secured the first criminal conviction against one of the seven top cybernats outed by the Daily Mail

In a war, there
are always casualties, and the first casualty of war is usually the truth, in
the war between Team Salmond and Team Sturgeon, there will be no winners, but a
lot of popcorn will be consumed by avid watchers.

Although the ‘War
on Sturgeon is going well for Team Salmond, he has decided to use what some
people term as the ‘Lady Di’ tactic, the tactic of being reasonable, the tactic
of playing the victim, the tactic of winning over more supporters. Yes, in his
best ‘Lady Di’ voice, he has let it be known that he and his mob; are to be more
statesmanlike and called for an end to hostilities. Previously, they were in
the gutter with their political combat knives trying to ambush Sturgeon allies
and end their careers.

Some good news in
the war, more a byproduct of the feud is that a new poll shows that the SNP’s
credibility has been damaged by Alex Salmond allegations. These are the allegations
that Alex Salmond sexually harassed two women. After the attempt to stitch up
Salmond in an unfair process crashed onto the rocks at the Court of Session, an
outbreak of civil war between two factions in the SNP has been played out in
the party and media.

A survey of 1,000
Scots was carried out in the wake of a Court of Session ruling asked the
question and found a bleak picture for Nicola Sturgeon. Team Salmond was
leaking a Cambridge spy ring, the goal, damage Sturgeon and it worked, very
well, aside from the poll results, you would see it in Nicola Sturgeon’s face,
and in her hair as she let her grey roots show through. Incidentally, when at
Westminster, you could see it also in the faces of her MPs, who stood behind
her, miserable as sin, and looking like they were getting looking forward to
eating a plate of sick.

Scotland asked
respondents:

“Has SNP
credibility been damaged by handling of the Salmond harassment allegations?”

The answer is of
course, you don’t need to be Einstein to work that out, but with the spiral of
decline already in the Sturgeon Government, this is another straw on the camel’s
back.

42 per cent said
Yes; 32 per cent said No and 26 per cent were Unsure, the tide is turning, and
the long lasting effects could usher in a shock result at Holyrood 2021 for the
SNP.

Conservative MSP
Annie Wells said:

“What the public
see is a battle of two egos at the top of the SNP. Instead of sorting domestic
issues and getting on with governing, the SNP is completely distracted by
internal warfare”.

Prior to that
event, they were distracted by indy, indy indy and of course indyref 2.

An oily
spokesperson for the SNP said:

“With the clock
ticking down to Brexit date - and with the Tory government incapable of
governing and Labour incapable of effectively opposing - the SNP will continue
to focus on standing up for Scotland’s interests in the face of a disastrous
Tory-driven Brexit and further austerity, and setting out the case for Scotland
thriving as an independent nation.”

Stock answer, a
tired reply not even given a serious update, you have to wonder how things are
in the Bute House Bunker, with Sturgeon under pressure and no way out.

Team Salmond know
that they face a long road, their pushing for a second poll on independence is
a good gag, because it is designed to stick the knife into Sturgeon when she
doesn’t deliver in this term of the Holyrood Parliament. The longer there is no
date, and that would be an agreed date with the UK Government, the more support
will leach away from Sturgeon to Salmond.

As there is no one
to take on the leadership of the party, this leaves ‘Lady Diane Salmond’, who
would answer the call, the call coming from his own side naturally.

Then there is the ‘cleansing’,
the day of full revenge, the removal of the bad seeds, the unbelievers; the
false prophets, those who worship the ‘fake’ Queen and didn’t pay true homage
to the ‘Return of the King’.

This assumes that Alex Salmond lasts the pace and
doesn’t drop dead of a heart attack.

Finally, is this
the end of the SNP Civil War?

The short answer
is no, there is plenty more action coming down the pipeline, more victim
playing, more attacks, and more fireworks to be lit. In the movie, Highlander,
there is a signature quote;

First, the Brexit vote, this was the worst defeat in
Parliament’s history for a sitting PM, Theresa May was never going to win this
vote because the other political parties had other agendas. MPs were never
going to be convinced no matter what the deal was on the table. The Labour
Party wanted a general election, the SNP wanted a second referendum and DUP;
well they didn’t like the Irish part of the agreement. Theresa May tried her
best but almost everyone was going for ‘party interest’ while she trying for
what she believed was ‘national interest’. As to the speech by Geoffrey Cox at
the dispatch box, his pitch was to berate MPs, turning to look at the
Conservative backbenchers, very much the wrong tact.

This guy couldn’t sell ice cream in a desert.

As we know the PM survived the no confidence vote that the
Labour Party brought forward, I think the idea was to ‘strike while the iron is
hot’. That said, with the defeat of the Brexit vote out of the way, this left
‘the problem’ of coming together mute for the Conservatives.

This was the wrong time to have a no confidence vote but you
can understand why Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn wanted to push through with it,
it was always going to be a gamble on his part.

But not a gamble of the UK Government!

Now, do you remember all those SNP Conferences where Alex
Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon would walk up to each other and kiss on stage? This
looked to me as a sickening spectacle of false affection for the cameras which
was so oily it was sickening. As the camps of both Team Salmond and Team
Sturgeon circle each other looking for an opening to thrust a ‘political combat
blade’ into the back of an opponent and get a career ruining moment, we all
waited with hushed breath. Clearly in this fight between Alex Salmond and
Nicola Sturgeon someone has to lose rather big since it is to the death.

We know have a comic moment however as a bright young spark
has asked Nicola Sturgeon a simple question, ‘is Alex Salmond still her friend’?
Oh to be there when that question was asked to see the look on Sturgeon’s face.
Nicola doesn’t hide her emotions well; even the media training of fake concern
to create an air can’t help her. As the fight develops, Sturgeon has insisted
she will not have to resign over the Alex Salmond row but admitted
she faces “difficult issues” because of the rift. The rift isn’t just with her
predecessor; it is with his allies who wait their chance.

Imagine being caught out like this on the issue of her
relationship with Salmond, you would have think she would have a stock answer
all lined up, ready to go, just dripping of the tongue.

"I'm not going to comment," she said.

Of course, Nicola Sturgeon has gone to London
for the no confidence vote, getting out of Scotland when she is in trouble is a
Sturgeon speciality it seems. She is attempting to play out the scenario that
everything is ‘business as usual’ but it is not. The press sense blood in the
water even although Westminster
is pretty interesting at the moment.

Speaking on Sky News, Ms Sturgeon was asked:

“Do you actually feel at the moment that your own job is on
the line?”

She replied:

“No, I don't… With regards to Alex Salmond, there are
investigations underway which should be allowed now to take their course. But
my job as First Minister is to do everything I can to protect the best
interests of Scotland,
to see the SNP - as far as we can - play a part in stopping the whole
UK
jumping off the Brexit cliff edge.”

Just bluster, Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP in Westminster have no role,
no part and not influence in regard to Brexit.

Interesting, people will be looking at her statement:

“I've been a friend and colleague of Alex Salmond for 30
years - for most of my life. Obviously, there are difficult issues that we're
confronting around that at the moment, there are a number of inquiries
underway, and it would not be appropriate for me to comment any further while
they're ongoing.”

Nicola Sturgeon seems to ‘hedging her bets’ on Police
Scotland and their investigation into Alex Salmond to save her bacon. If
Salmond comes back into the SNP, you can expect fireworks, possibly a
leadership challenge as Sturgeon continues to sink as leader. All Salmond would
have to do is pick his moment, build up a consensus that Sturgeon is a
liability then pounce.

Here is something to think about, why did Alex Salmond need
his former Chief of Staff to broker a deal for Salmond to meet Sturgeon? The
reason for this question is obvious, according to Sturgeon, “I've been a friend
and colleague of Alex Salmond for 30 years”.

Finally, Brexit is still rolling on, I believe that ‘Hard
Brexit’ is more in the UK
national interest than the deal which was presented to the House of Commons.
People voted to leave the EU; that should be delivered on in full by the government.
Of course there will be a relationship with the EU in the aftermath, but it
should be based on mutual agreement, not as the EU attempted to do, ram their
agenda down our throats.

In France, the people have been protesting
for months, the ‘yellow vest’ protests have become a people’s revolt against a
government that they feel strongly no longer represents them. The French President Emmanuel
Macron is said to be a President for the rich, and his bio tends to bear that
out.

Note that he was an investment banker in a
highly-paid position at Rothschild & Cie Banque, he uses a party which
he help create to get elected which says their goal is to get closer to what
the French people want.

Basically as his actions show, this was a
con!

The ‘yellow vest’ protests are the people
of France railing against him and his agenda, now his government is in crisis
as the protesting shows no sign of stopping. In a sign of desperation, French
riot police are now using semi-automatic weapons with live ammunition against
Yellow Vest protestors as Macron's law and order crisis spirals, The use of
armed police is an escalation which basically says that Macron is willing to
see people die to hold onto power.

Police Officers were filmed brandishing
weapons by Arc de Triomphe in Paris, rifles such as the Heckler & Koch G36
weapons are pretty good, they use the 5.56 mm Nato round and have a range of
800 metres.

Interestingly, a former conservative
minister Luc Ferry has called for live fire to be used against what he terms the
‘thugs’ from the Yellow Vest movement who he says 'beat up police'.

Yellow Vest protestor Gilles Caron said:

‘The CRS with the guns were wearing riot
control helmets and body armour – they were not a specialised firearms unit. Their
job was simply to threaten us with lethal weapons in a manner which is very
troubling. We deserve some explanations.’

The CRS riot police are known for their
tough approach to policing, they frequently using distinctively wide-barrelled
guns to fire flash-ball projectiles and tear gas canisters and are not slow to
use physical force.

If protesters end up dead after being shot,
the position of French President Emmanuel Macron will be untenable, there
will be calls for a general election and far from backing down, the ‘yellow
vest’ protests will see their ranks swell. The French have a history of revolution
and standing up against tyrants.

A French National Police spokesman
confirmed that the CRS were equipped with H&K G36s on Saturday, but would
not discuss their operational use ‘for security reasons’. It is plain to see
what their operational use is, much in the same way as someone buying condoms,
it explains itself.

Worryingly a police G36 was stolen from
inside a police van during a Yellow Vest demonstration by the Arc de Triomphe
on December 1; however this was seen as an opportunistic theft rather than a
planned event.

You don’t steal a G36 as a souvenir; it isn’t
like you can walk about the streets of France showing off your new toy. And I
am sure that like the British, the French have a database of recovered bullets
that trace a weapon’s history.

When
former conservative minister Luc Ferry who is now a full time philosopher was
asked about the escalation, he said in reply to the statement that guns might
lead to wounding or worse, Mr Ferry said:

‘So what?’

He added:

‘Listen, frankly, when you see guys beating
up an unfortunate policeman on the floor, that’s when they should use their
weapons once and for all! That’s enough.’

Of course, if the police start the fight,
this is of no matter to Ferry, he is just interested in the outcome; the protesters
are dead. Police were attacked in major cities including Paris on Saturday on
an Act 9 Day of Rage by the Yellow Vests. They have pledged to continue their
campaign calling for social, political and economic reforms indefinitely and
they mean it. It seems that French President Emmanuel Macron is calling
for a ‘grand debate’, whether this is to buy time is speculative. One thing he
will be working on is a new anti riot law to be used against the people.

Finally, there will be a number of reasons
why the French people are protesting, but you can be sure that the EU will
figure in the equation. The French are unhappy that French President Emmanuel
Macron is firmly in the globalist camp and not representing them. In a sense
they have a right to be unhappy, their country has been hijacked by an uncaring
political elite. A political elite which will do anything to hang onto power,
even kill!

The ‘war’ between Scotland’s unpopular
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and ‘vengeful’ Alex Salmond appears to be boiling
up considerably. The panic in the Sturgeon Empire after the collapse of the
case against Alex Salmond in the Court of Session has left Sturgeon on the back
foot.

'Toxic' Nicola Sturgeon has dodge her own party’s
National Executive Committee and referred herself to the Standards watchdog,
there is even said to be a criminal investigation in the leak in her inept
government.

You get the feeling that there is an outstanding stench of alleged sleaze
and alleged criminality swirling around the place that threats to choke the
life out of anyone caught up in its stream. In an attempt to play the ‘victim
card’, Nicola Sturgeon’s Office has claimed she is the victim of a “smear”
campaign by friends of Alex Salmond.This is one time that the Nats have used
the ‘victim card’ and there isn’t a sign of race or homophobia attached to it.

The pressure is on Nicola Sturgeon personally to sack her top civil servant and
the investigating officer in the Alex Salmond case. It literally beggars belief
that the investigating officer in the Alex Salmond case still has employment after
what has happened.

As the silence by SNP MSPs showed at FMQs
in Holyrood, the support for Sturgeon is on a very sticky wicket, even the
silence outside the chamber speaks volumes which no one can ignore.

Where are the SNP MSPs saying they stand
with Nicola?

Where are her MSP friends?

Clearly her manufactured ‘popularity’ can’t
even be made to work for her in this case!

There is a bunker mentality, a sense the
tide has turned against her administration and the feeling that a ‘reckoning’
is coming. Even the press in multiple papers such as Herald Scotland and The
Scottish Sun sense blood in the water as Sturgeon has to repeatedly deny that misled
the public and parliament. You can smell the fear as the First Minister’s
office flatly rejected reports in two Rupert Murdoch-owned newspapers about her
role in the botched sexual misconduct investigation.

A statement issued by her official spokesman
said of the actions of Salmond’s supporters:

“This appears to be an attempt to smear the
First Minister.”

What is now becoming a focus is a report
that Sturgeon's chief of staff Liz Lloyd had tried to advise Salmond against a
return to elected politics. Her rationale for this last March was by the mentioning
possible complaints. Apparently Ms Lloyd did discuss misconduct complaints with one of his friends in March, the bit that may confuse
people is the fact that she insisted that it had been in the abstract.

Abstract?

How many times has someone just made up a
story of someone?

It appears that Ms Lloyd’s ‘get out of jail free card’ was that a report said:

“Any reference to allegations or complaints
of harassment against Alex Salmond in that discussion was in the context of
media enquiries made around the time the #metoo campaign began. Ms Lloyd did
not know of any complaints against Mr Salmond or of a Government investigation.”

This is an SNP government full to the
gunnels of SNP Special advisers who operate like NKVD Russian Commissars.

In a retort back from the Team Salmond
brigade, they hit back insisting that Ms Lloyd "knew of the existence of
complaints some time before" she and Ms Sturgeon met Mr Salmond on April
2.

If I was Liz Lloyd, I would be looking for
employment opportunities in Wales just in case everything goes pear shape, as
the old story goes, when you become the story, you have got to go.

Allegedly it has been said that Nicola
Sturgeon’s Chief of Staff is on the Salmond’s wanted list. In what may seem to
others as pure schadenfreude, Salmond has confirmed he would be
"happy" to cooperate with the looming investigation into whether Ms
Sturgeon broke the ministerial code.

Surely he must be called as a witness in
that investigation?

Team Salmond are hopping mad, they want
revenge, full revenge, not an apology, not an intern goat staked out, they want
the full bhoona, They also want ‘The Return of the King’, which means the
Sturgeon Empire must fall, and the Scottish purges can take place by Salmond. It’s
the old ‘let’s put the band back together’ scenario. The ‘war of words’ illustrate
the bitterness of the feud between the SNP’s two most successful leaders
which now threatens to split the party. Sturgeon’s success however was made on
the back of everything Salmond done.

Sturgeon referred herself on Sunday to her
external ethics watchdogs is to buy time from the questions from her own party.
Sturgeon has maintained that the first she knew of the probe into Salmond was
when he told her himself at a meeting at her Glasgow home on April 2.
According to the Scottish Sun, they cited a “Salmond camp insider”
contradicting this to claim that Ms Sturgeon was aware in advance of the April
2 meeting.

The paper said:

“The source claimed: ‘She already knew
about the inquiry. She knew.’”

If this account is true, it would mean Sturgeon
has misled the public and Holyrood about the chronology which prompted the
First Minister’s spokesperson to quickly deny the claim. The plot seems to
thicken as Team Salmond have been ‘making the rounds’ of the press to get their
version out into the public domain, which has Ms Lloyd advised Salmond,
via an intermediary, not to stand for election because of harassment allegations
against him. The contact was on March 6, this would also allegedly point to
prior knowledge by Ms Sturgeon’s closest political aide according to The Times’
piece.

On Monday, in a furious attempt to rebut
both stories, Sturgeon’s official spokesman issued the following statement:

“This appears to be an attempt to smear the
First Minister. Suggestions by Mr Salmond’s ‘insiders’ that the First Minister
knew about the investigation before April 2 are not true.

The suggestion put to Ms Sturgeon’s Chief
of Staff by the Times, that she knew of complaints when she met someone who
could be described as an intermediary for Alex Salmond on 6th March, is also
not true. Given that issues around the First Minister's meetings with Mr
Salmond have been referred to the Independent Advisers to consider, we will not
comment further."

See what I mean about Nicola Sturgeon buying
time, problem is that time is short in a relative sense, and in the meantime,
Team Salmond will be not calling a truce and the artillery shells will still
keep falling.

Nicola Sturgeon needs to get rid of bodies
from the bunker!

Sturgeon’s official spokesman added:

“At the heart of this matter remains the
fact that complaints were made that could not be swept under the carpet – and
the First Minister and Scottish Government will not say or do anything which
might risk prejudicing the police investigation.”

It seems that the Sturgeon Empire have been
reduced to hoping that Police Scotland will be their saviour and led them out
of the political wilderness, if that case doesn’t materalise into charges, the
pressure will be ramped up on Nicola Sturgeon like a boiler on the verge of
blowing.

Salmond's spokesman said:

"We will not be commenting on the
content of private meetings or discussions on or off the record but Alex has
made it clear that, if asked, he will be happy to give evidence to the panel of
independent advisers. This then is our first and only comment on this issue of
the Ministerial code. In the interests of accuracy, it is the case that the
First Minister’s senior special adviser knew of the existence of
complaints against Alex some time before the meeting of April 2 and that she
initiated the first contact through an intermediary. They then arranged the meeting which
Alex asked for. Alex has no certainty as to the state of knowledge of the First
Minister before then. In any case we regard this controversy about these
meetings as of secondary importance. The substantive issue right now is not the
possibility that Nicola Sturgeon may have broken the Ministerial code
but the fact that despite repeated warnings the Scottish Government behaved in
a manner which was “unlawful”, “unfair’ and “tainted by apparent bias” and
further that their decisions have been struck down by the Court of Session at a
cost to the Scottish people of over £500,000. The responsibility for that
institutional fiasco lies at the door of the Permanent Secretary not that of
the First Minister. It is high time that the Permanent Secretary
accepted it”.

Let’s cut to the chase, if this was a chess
game, it would possibly seem to some that Alex Salmond wants is to take out the
‘pawns’ before attempt to take out the ’Queen’. Has Salmond taken a multi
strategy approach in fighting on many fronts which his ‘supporters’ are doing
some of the heavy lifting? For Team Sturgeon, recent events show that they are
in a bunker mentality, unaware when the next grenade will drop through the door
but they know and sit and wait for it coming.

Finally, if Nicola Sturgeon hasn’t got the
backing of her own SNP MSPs, then you have to wonder seriously about the SNP Westminster
crowd.

We have all heard conspiracy theories in
our time, whether it be UFO’s, reptile people ruling the world or political
back stabbing. The thing that is needed to make a good conspiracy theory is of
course a sprinkling of truth and the benckmark of ‘possibly’. On twitter,
people have taken to using the hashtag of #snpcivilwar, this is clearly a
reference between the Salmond and Sturgeon factions.

So, is there any truth in Alex Salmond’s
claims?

Well, he could point to the court case he
raised in the Court of Session about how the case against him was conducted.

And it isn’t a huge leap to suggest that
there those who see him as a political threat, but who are ‘those’ who see him
as a political threat?

It isn’t the pro UK camp.

So, who is it?

Standing back and looking at this from a
distance, you could be minded to formulate a theory that the only people who
stand to lose out from a Salmond return are Team Sturgeon.

Salmond back means Sturgeon’s position as
First Minister is in danger.

Leaks have occurred by where did the leaks
come from, and who stands to benefit, are questions you probably want to chow
down on.

Many would see Team Sturgeon having a
direct benefit from a damaged Alex Salmond, although people can climb many
mountains in politics, climbing ‘Mount sexual misconduct’ is too much for most
people.

Oh, for the record Alex Salmond denies all
allegations against him.

Today in the long running saga, we may be
seeing a clearing of the mist as Team Salmond and Team Sturgeon appear to
emerge to be at each others’ throats. Today sees Alex Salmond being accused of
spreading “conspiracy theories”. In the SNP fostering grievance is an ‘art
form’, and rallying ‘allies’ and the rank and file is crucial in the
forthcoming battle between Salmond and Sturgeon.

Quick of the mark, Salmond used a message
to supporters on his online fundraising page to suggest that he was “close to
finding out” who leaked details of the complaints to the Daily Record
newspaper.

Alex Salmond, for the record isn’t Sherlock
Holmes, and of course the ‘leaking’ isn’t that big a deal, what is more
meaningful is who done it, was it a solo run by someone, or was this someone
who was acting for a third party with their full support. Let’s face it, if you
are in a job and asked to do something like this, you would want to know that
you are protected, fully protected, especially if your job is online. But spare
a thought that the ‘leaker’ may have been handed the data from a third party to
someone connected to the SNP, and therefore attempted to put their buffer in
place.

On his online fundraising page, Salmond
wrote:

“I have been in public life in Scotland for
30 years. Over that entire time I have had an unblemished record in terms of
personal conduct, despite being perhaps the most investigated politician on
these islands”.

You then remember Salmond’s other comments,
‘I am no saint’.

Interestingly, Salmond’s pal Kenny
MacAskill has said that an inner circle of hardliners surrounding Nicola
Sturgeon are “driving out” anyone who threatens to damage the SNP leader’s
public reputation.

So, who are these hardliners?

Was one or more of these hardliners behind
the leak?

When Salmond went to Court, Kenny MacAskill was at his side supporting
him, in times of trouble, it is interesting to see who standby you. MacAskill
also mentioned that the party’s treatment of Alex Salmond over his sexual
harassment case, and accused senior figures of a “prejudicial and
unfair” approach in order to protect the current First Minister.

Of course; people will automatically assume that senior figures means
elected politicians but it would be a mistake to limit your scope to just
solely them?

MacAskill wrote:

“It now seems that, for a coterie
surrounding the SNP leadership, not one blemish must be allowed to be cast upon
the party leader and First Minister. She is to be whiter than white and the SNP
purer than the driven snow. Misconduct will not be tolerated and any who might
taint her are to be driven out, whether by leaks to the press or overt
actions.”

One person says conspiracy; people laugh it
off, two people say conspiracy?

A point mentioned by MacAskill:

“Loyalty needs not just to be earned
but shown, and that has been remiss lately within the SNP leadership.”

You may remember that I wrote many years
ago that the SNP is a ‘rat ship’; the problem which MacAskill highlights was
never a problem until it was used against Salmond directly. In one sense, this
episode shows how weak the position of Nicola Sturgeon actually is, although
she holds the position of leader, she is no leader. When push comes
to shove, Sturgeon gets her authority from the position of leader, not from
within herself.

Finally, as I mentioned yesterday, the main
battle has yet to come between Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon, Sturgeon will
want to keep Salmond at arms’ length, but just as the voters are leaving the
SNP,

I can see the support for Sturgeon dipping among SNP members.

An Alex
Salmond return to the SNP cannot mean anything else but a return to Holyrood, a
return to being party leader. He can only wield the knife as leader to cut out
the bad seeds, and that must include SNP HQ staff. I don’t see Salmond
accepting just a crack at a Westminster seat and forgetting, he might see this
as destiny calling for him to revenge fully.

The Alex Salmond ‘show’, not the one on RT
but the piece of theatre being played out in the Courts and Press, like a steam
engine, this drama is building up steam gradually, but before you get carried
away, this is the ‘phoney war’ at present.

No shells of 105 mm have crossed the
battlefield, no one is dead yet career wise, a few people have been
shellshocked but everyone is still standing. Of course we haven’t seen much in
the way of ‘troop deployment’ yet either. One person who has decided to pop his
head up is Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA trade union which
represents senior civil servants. Penman has accused Alex Salmond of 'personal
vendetta' against top civil servant, Leslie Evans.

It may seem to many or a few that Leslie
Evans, Nicola Sturgeon’s handpicked choice for the top civil service job is a ‘proxy’
for attacking Sturgeon.

Isn’t it awful when ‘best buddies’ fall
out?

Yesterday Salmond attempted to do his ‘Lady
Diana’ after winning his victory, he expressed regret dressed in black, but he
couldn’t sustain it. In a roller coaster of emotions, he went from sorrow to
attack mode and called for Leslie Evans to quit over
the "unlawful" way the Scottish Government dealt with
sexual misconduct complaints against him. It was an unremarkable performance
but a warning shot across the bows that, ‘if you wrong us, shall we not revenge’.
Of course, this bit is from the Merchant of Venice but clearly it rather seems
that Alex Salmond wants his ‘pound of flesh’.

Perhaps several pounds!

An interesting take on this drama can be
found at the Craig Murray blog.

If you were to do a list of people who
appear to owe a ‘pound of flesh’, you might come up with this list.

Nicola Sturgeon

Leslie Evans

Judith Mackinnon

Who is Judith Mackinnon, she is ‘Head of
People Advice’ at the Scottish Government, she allegedly cost the Scottish
Government a whopping £500,000. She was previously Head of Human Resource
Governance at the Scottish Police Authority according to Craig Murray’s
article. A senior policeman allegedly told Murray that appeared in practice to
mean professional feminist. Someone else who was also at the Scottish Police
Authority as a board member was SNP Minister Jeane Freeman.

Yesterday also saw Nicola Sturgeon on the
back foot while being interviewed on TV, it seemed the wind had been taken
right out of her sails by the collapse of this case by her side throwing in the
towel. Judge Lord Pentland declared that the Scottish Government's actions were
"unlawful in respect that they were procedurally unfair and that they were
tainted with apparent bias".

Reading the explanation put forward by
Craig Murray, one has to wonder about the future of both Leslie Evans and Judith
Mackinnon. Murray’s take is that their position appear to be untenable, but
just as Evans is a buffer for Sturgeon, Mackinnon is a buffer for Evans. There
was talk of starting the whole process again but given what has transpired,
many would say that the ‘window’ for action is gone via the Scottish Government
route.

Everything down the tubes because the person
who investigated the complaints had some involvement with the two women prior
to being appointed investigating officer!

Craig Murray uses the rather catchy title, “The
Salmond Stitch-Up – the Incredible Facts, and why Mackinnon and Evans Must Be
Sacked”.

I would have added in Nicola Sturgeon’s
name but I am all about ‘belts and braces’.

Salmond repeatedly calls for Evans to quit
her post is victors revenge, he demanded:

"When she has got some time for mature
reflection, I hope that the Permanent Secretary considers her position."

I think not, Evans has time, it would take
quite a few years before Salmond could affect the employment of Evans, even if
he could return to front line politics, by that time, Evans could be sitting on
a beach with her golden goodbye pension sipping Evian water.

Back to Mr Penman, he said:

"I think what has been disappointing
is the way Alex Salmond has continually targeted Leslie Evans from day one on
this case, he's called it the 'Leslie Evans procedure'. Yesterday he made repeated
assertions that she should resign. He has always portrayed this as a personal
vendetta, even going as far as suggesting the Civil Service was acting without
ministerial authority, so it was no surprise yesterday that Alex Salmond would
therefore call for Leslie Evans' resignation."

He added:

"Confidence in the Permanent Secretary
is a matter for the First Minister. I'm sure when Alex Salmond was first
minister that is what he would have said and I don't think anyone could be in
any doubt from what Nicola Sturgeon said yesterday that Leslie Evans
retains the confidence of the First Minister."

Yesterday Nicola Sturgeon said that Ms
Evans took the decision to settle the court case "with my support".

Do you see why Nicola Sturgeon should be on
the ‘pound of flesh’ list?

Nicola Sturgeon maybe at present ‘standing by’
Evans but given how quick she abandoned her mentor Salmond, I wouldn’t count on
Sturgeon’s support. You can almost see the storm brewing the ranks of the SNP,
Nicola Sturgeon rammed her ‘women’s agenda’ down the throat of the SNP, the
Government and anywhere else she could, and look how it ended up.

Finally, there is an ongoing police
investigation; Salmond has admitted no wrongdoing or criminality. It seems almost
a foregone conclusion that if Salmond gets back into the SNP, he would want to
challenge for the leadership, then become First Minister again.

Is there room at the Cabinet table for Nicola
Sturgeon?

I would hazard a guess and say only
temporary till he gets his feet under the table and he moves his own people
into power, then we could see a Stalin like era of the purges, the backbenches being
the ‘new Siberia’.

One thing that the SNP like to do is
distract people by flagging up a bit of #fakenews, yesterday, the fake news was
Nicola Sturgeon is going to announce a second independence date ‘very soon’.
The media and commentators would normally be all over this story but this is a
deflection from what you should be looking at.

Can you imagine the heat on Nicola Sturgeon’s
neck now that Salmond has won his legal battle with the Scottish Government after
it admitted it mishandled sexual harassment complaints against him? Can you
sniff a return of SNP membership, the marshalling of Salmond’s forces, a bloody
coup behind the scenes?

Can you imagine Nicola Sturgeon and her SNP
Chief Executive husband Peter Murrell quietly retiring, him out the door and
her steeping away to the back benches?

In truth, I didn’t think that Alex Salmond
would lose, after all how perverse would it be if the Scottish Courts had
backed an unfair system put into place by the Scottish Government? I
wonder how many people will stop for a moment and ask the general question, why
would the Scottish Government put in place an unfair system in the first place?
They must have know about human rights, they must have known about Article Six,
the right to a fair trial, they are staffed by multiple lawyers!

Salmond currently sitting in the political
wilderness is 64, he is also doing a show on the Russian Channel RT, although
he would want to possibly return to the political scene, well it is easy money
and secured, he is a man without a party.

He is a punter!

Salmond has won a battle, but he is a long
way from winning the ‘war’ before he can even think about a ‘D-Day’ landing
storming the SNP HQ for a membership application. He has been accused of sexual
misconduct by two female civil servants relating to his time in office five
years earlier. He has always strongly denied the allegations and any
criminality but in order to get a candidacy, it rather looks like he would need
to become leader.

Of course, if he does win all the way, you
can imagine the sickening photo op of ‘unity’ photos with Nicola Sturgeon being
played out in the press. Nicola would be doing a lot of talking saying things,
like it is ‘right matters can be discussed’ etc etc. One fly in the ointment is
the separate police investigation ongoing and active and digging like
Yorkshire coal miners, looking for any nuggets of interests.

Today’s victory was not about the substance
of the allegations against Alex Salmond but the process used, speaking
after a hearing at the Court of Session in Edinburgh; Mr Salmond
hailed an "emphatic victory". Before you get carried away, this win
doesn’t rate a victory parade through the streets of the Capital like a Rome
General entering Rome. After the hearing, it appears that Salmond had nothing
good to say about the Scottish Government's Permanent Secretary Leslie Evans.
He accused her of wasting "huge amounts of public money and to milk it
added in this was an incompetent attempt to enforce an unlawful process. I
wonder if Nicola Sturgeon has given Evans assurances on her future job
prospects given that her own look a bit ropey these days.

Salmond added:

"Now, having incurred those costs
to the public purse, she has collapsed the case prior to a full hearing. As a
former First Minister, I find that conduct entirely unworthy."

In a lengthy statement, Evans apologised
for how the complaints were dealt with but she left the door open for the
Scottish Government to re-investigate the allegations.

Evans said:

"Lawyers for the Scottish Government
and for Alex Salmond have this morning informed the Court of Session that
his action has been settled and the Court has approved that settlement. As part
of the settlement, I have accepted that the decision reached after the
investigation of two complaints made against Mr Salmond should be set aside. This
action is being taken because it has become clear that, in one respect only
(albeit an important one), the investigation was procedurally flawed. However,
it is important to stress that this relates to the operational application of
the Procedure for Handling Complaints Involving Current or Former Ministers
(‘the Procedure’)”.

This translates to FU Salmond.

Evans added:

"The Scottish Government considers the
Procedure itself to be robust and it remains in place. After reassessing all
the materials available, I have concluded that an impression of partiality
could have been created based on one specific point - contact between the
Investigating Officer and the two complainants around the time of their
complaints being made in January 2018. The full picture only became evident in
December 2018 as a result of the work being undertaken to produce relevant
documents in advance of the hearing.

I want to apologise to all involved for the
failure in the proper application of this one particular part of the Procedure.
There is nothing to suggest that the Investigating Officer did not conduct
their duties in an impartial way”.

Evans concluded by saying:

"Unfortunately, the interactions with
the complainants in advance of the complaints being made meant that the process
was flawed, however impartially and fairly the Investigating Officer conducted
the investigation. All the other grounds of Mr Salmond’s challenge have been
dismissed. The Scottish Government has acted in good faith at all times and
will continue to do so. It was right and proper that these complaints were
investigated and I stand by the decision to carry out that investigation. It is
also important to note that the procedural flaw in the investigation does not
have implications, one way or the other, for the substance of the complaints or
the credibility of the complainers. The Judicial Review was never about the
substance of the complaints, but about the process that took place to
investigate those complaints. It is accordingly open to the Scottish Government
to re-investigate the complaints and, subject to the views of the complainants,
it would be our intention to consider this - however, this will only be once
ongoing police inquiries have concluded”.

If the police investigation falls flat,
then it would be interesting to see if Evans would be up for ‘Round Two’, but
given that is so far down the road, she might have 'cleared her desk' and headed
off into the setting Sun of retirement.

Finally, although Salmond has hailed his
technical win as an "emphatic victory", victory, yes, emphatic, not
really, there still the several battles and probably plenty of ‘leaking’ to the
press yet to come. The SNP Cult has moved on since the Salmond era, everyone
has their new chair on the Titanic captained by Nicola Sturgeon; they wouldn’t
want to scrabble for a new chair. The SNP don’t even want Alex Salmond in
their life raft!

It maybe a new year but the SNP leader
Nicola Sturgeon is still peddling the same old failed bankrupt goods on
Scottish Independence, she has said Brexit has "materially
strengthened" the case for Scottish independence.

Rubbish!

Yes, rubbish, it wouldn’t matter what the
issue was good or bad, in the tiny mind of Nicola Sturgeon everything has to be
about Scottish independence and everything has to justify her position.

As part of the ‘plan’, Sturgeon relies on
grievance by saying that Scotland's interests are being "completely
ignored and sidelined".

Have you ever stopped and asked why the
SNP#s interests have been "completely ignored and sidelined"?

Let me enlighten you, they deliberately
chose not to be team players with the UK Government, an opportunity existed for
them, an olive branch was extended, when it was rebuffed, they dug their own
hole.

Stupidity won out over commonsense,
Scotland could have got a bung just as Northern Ireland did to be a team
player, Ireland got an extra billion, we got hee haw, all thanks to Nicola
Sturgeon.

Nicola Sturgeon cost Scots plenty, extra money
for health, extra money for investment, extra money for education, because of
her, we lost out. In an attempt to bloster her position as SNP leader which is
looking rather weak, even in nationalist circles, Sturgeon is on a mission, to
buy time.

What is the goal?

Firefighting to keep her in power as First
Minister post 2021!

Its all about the First Minister’s Scottish
roubles salted away before her position becomes untenable as SNP leader and she
stepps down to let ‘young blood’ take over, actually, more like getting out the
road and trying to wangle a departure that looks credible.

Passing the baton, you get the drift?

What happened in 2016 in Brexit was a
watershed moment, it set the UK back on the road to full sovereignty which was
in the interest of every part of the UK, a million Scots voted to leave the UK.
Nothing since then has reinforced the case to stay, not the mutiny by some Conservative
Brexiteers, not the rhetoric of Junker, not the attempt to extort us by the EU
Cabal.

The EU are not the UK’s friends!

After doing periodic shouting, Sturgeon
says she will not be drawn on timings around an independence referendum, this
is because she has no legal right or authority to call a vote. So whether she waits
until this phase of the Brexit process concludes or not, she is just treading
water. One thing you do know that Nicola Sturgeon doesn’t have a mandate to
have an independence referendum within this term of the Holyrood parliament.
If the parliament had, it would have used it before now.

There is no mandate!

Sturgeon said:

"Everything that has happened over the
past couple of years, from Scotland facing exit from the EU against our will to
every reasonable attempt at compromise to protect Scotland's interests by the
Scottish Government being spurned, to the powers of the Scottish Parliament being
eroded, to the UK Government even taking the Scottish Government to court, all
of that has strengthened and reinforced the case for Scotland to be
independent, because these are not just academic arguments, all of this will
have a material impact on Scotland's economy and well-being for decades to come."

Scotland didn’t face exit from the EU
against its will because Scotland wasn’t voting as a country, everyone was
voting in a UK wide vote, so Sturgeon is peddling rubbish and always will
because she has nothing else to sell.

She added:

"The case for independence is
materially strengthened from an already strong base in 2014 because of all of
the experience of Scotland in the last two years. We were told in 2014 that it
was voting for independence that would put in peril our membership of the
European Union. Because we didn't vote for independence, we now not just find
ourselves facing exit, the voice and the interests of Scotland are being
completely ignored and sidelined."

You know the more you learn about politics
and what is going on, the greater the light shines on these people, and that
light clearly shows how willing the SNP is to sell out the people of this
country by their small mindedness.

Nicola Sturgeon wants another vote, what
she doesn’t want is a General Election because, the SNP are a busted flush, in
two short years, they dropped from 56 MPs to 35 MPs, why so steep?

Because the SNP leadership trawled the
bottom of the barrel and although you could argue there are worse in the wings,
this lot sitting at Westminster certainly aren’t anything to write home about.

Scottish Conservative deputy
leader Jackson Carlaw said:

"Today Scots are heading back to work
at the beginning of a new year, but Nicola Sturgeon is stuck in the past.”

Stuck in the past because she knows that
she has no future!

Carlaw added:

"As at the start of 2018, 2017, 2016,
and 2015 her priority is to rerun the referendum of 2014. People across the
country will correctly be thinking, 'There she goes again'. The best new year's
resolution the SNP could make would be to drop the independence obsession and
concentrate on delivering for the people of Scotland."

Concentrate on delivering for the people of
Scotland?

That boat sailed a long time ago, we need a
change of government, we need the SNP gone!

Finally, the more you learn, the more you
read, the more you hold your own with these people, you can see the cracks,
recently the SNP MEP was mentioned as possibly standing in Ruth Davidson’s
seat. The angry Nat who I debated on BBC Radio Scotland is waking up to the
truth, the party is over.